If the Palestinians care about peace, why do they pay salaries to terrorists?

Palestinians have been encouraged to believe that these actions, whether blowing up a bus or knifing an old man, are part of a sacred historic moveme

By Robert Fulford, National Post, July 7, 2017

All over the world, people take the side of the Palestinians without knowing much about them and their collective beliefs and intentions. Palestinians who go abroad looking for praise and propaganda seem pleasant. They don't find it hard to convince innocent Westerners that they have justice on their side.

But sometimes, even in the Middle East, a window opens and the truth peeks out. At the moment, the struggle over official payments to Palestinian terrorists provides an exceptionally useful vantage point.

For many years, the Palestinian Authority (PA) or one of its offshoots has been paying regular salaries to the families of dead or imprisoned terrorists. The 2016 PA budget says it now pays relatives of "martyrs" the equivalent of $183 million a year and families of imprisoned terrorists $135 million. According to the Times of Israel, the Palestinians have paid out $1.12 billion during the last four years to terrorists and their families. The money, all in U.S. dollars, comes from foreign aid grants.

Sometimes, even in the Middle East, a window opens and the truth peeks out

The new administration in Washington has decided this practice should end. At his meeting in Bethlehem with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the PA, Donald Trump said: "Peace can never take root in an environment where violence is tolerated, funded or rewarded."

The Americans thought Abbas had agreed with them. In June, Trump's secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, told a Senate hearing that the Palestinian leadership will stop making these payments. He said that this practice "is simply not acceptable" to the U.S. Tillerson reported saying to Abbas: "I told him: you absolutely have to stop this." The senators, some of whom find the payments outlandishly wrong, were apparently satisfied.

But Tillerson's confidence was misplaced. Abbas has in the past promoted the funds-for-terrorists program—in 2011 he raised the salaries. He knows how popular it is. Recently, the official Facebook page of his party, Fatah, carried his statement: "Even if I will have to leave my position, I will not compromise on the salary of a martyr or a prisoner, as I am the president of the entire Palestinian people, including the prisoners, the martyrs, the injured, the expelled, and the uprooted."

A member of Fatah's central committee, Jamal Muhaisen, quoting the Abbas position, said this is not an issue of money. Rather, it connects with the "Palestinian historical narrative." The prisoners and martyrs "represent our Palestinian people's struggle." And Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli research group which documents and translates public speeches, has found no evidence of any intention to stop the payments.

In fact, Palestinian leaders repeatedly stress that the salaries will not be stopped. The recipients, having grown used to this subsidy, would feel cheated if it disappeared. They are encouraged to believe that their actions, whether blowing up a bus or knifing an old man, are part of a sacred historic movement.

Meeting with families of "martyrs," the PA prime minister, Rama Allahabad, assured them that they will continue receiving the money, and further emphasized the PA's admiration for the "martyrs":

"I salute all of the martyrs' families. I emphasize to them that their rights are protected, and we will continue our diligent work with the relevant PLO institutions to fulfill our basic, humanitarian, and national obligations towards them. We remember the sacrifices and struggle of the pure martyrs, guardians of the land and identity who have turned our people's cause into a historical epic of struggle and resolve."

This story forces us to understand that many Palestinians assume terrorists are heroes.

A Fatah official, Abbas Zaki, speaking on behalf of the Palestinian leadership, emphasized that the prisoners' issue is one of the top priorities of the leadership, and that the leadership will not submit "to the American and Israeli pressures in any attempt to harm the salaries of the families of the martyrs." It is not negotiable, according to a PLO official, Ahmed Majdalani: "It is a political, national, and moral issue."

The best that the Palestinian families can hope for is that the PA will continue making payments while hiding them as "humanitarian and social aid to needy families," to satisfy donor countries. In 2014, the PA closed its Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs but continued the salaries through the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs. The PA is looking for a new way to accept the international demands and yet continue paying terrorists, according to some Palestinian sources. Madurai Fares, the chairman of the PA-funded Prisoners' Club, said there will be no changes. In his view, a Palestinian consensus opposes any changes concerning this "noble fighter" group.

That's the point. This story forces us to understand that many Palestinians (and certainly the leaders they elect) assume that terrorists who randomly slaughter men, women and children are heroes. They believe they are fighting ruthlessly for their homeland, but they're actually making a mockery of the peace process they claim to support.